False Feminist Claims Are Nearly Impossible To Correct
Christina Hoff Sommers wrote in 2009 for the Chronicle of Higher Ed about the myths that persist in feminist "scholarship":
My complaint with feminist research is not so much that the authors make mistakes; it is that the mistakes are impervious to reasoned criticism. They do not get corrected. The authors are passionately committed to the proposition that American women are oppressed and under siege. The scholars seize and hold on for dear life to any piece of data that appears to corroborate their dire worldview. At the same time, any critic who attempts to correct the false assumptions is dismissed as a backlasher and an anti-feminist crank.Why should it matter if a large number of professors think and say a lot of foolish and intemperate things? Here are three reasons to be concerned:
1) False assertions, hyperbole, and crying wolf undermine the credibility and effectiveness of feminism. The United States, and the world, would greatly benefit from an intellectually responsible, reality-based women's movement.
2) Over the years, the feminist fictions have made their way into public policy. They travel from the women's-studies textbooks to women's advocacy groups and then into news stories. Soon after, they are cited by concerned political leaders. President Obama recently issued an executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls. As he explained, "The purpose of this council is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy." He and Congress are also poised to use the celebrated Title IX gender-equity law to counter discrimination not only in college athletics but also in college math and science programs, where, it is alleged, women face a "chilly climate." The president and members of Congress can cite decades of women's-studies scholarship that presents women as the have-nots of our society. Never mind that this is largely no longer true. Nearly every fact that could be marshaled to justify the formation of the White House Council on Women and Girls or the new focus of Title IX application was shaped by scholarly merchants of hype like Professors Lemon and Seager.
3) Finally, as a philosophy professor of almost 20 years, and as someone who respects rationality, objective scholarship, and intellectual integrity, I find it altogether unacceptable for distinguished university professors and prestigious publishers to disseminate falsehoods. It is offensive in itself, even without considering the harmful consequences. Obduracy in the face of reasonable criticism may be inevitable in some realms, such as partisan politics, but in academe it is an abuse of the privileges of professorship.
Here's the exchange that followed Hoff Sommers' piece -- between Hoff Sommers and the aptly-named Nancy K.D. Lemon. The upshot, from Hoff Sommers:
Lemon has just published the third edition of her celebrated, error-ridden casebook. This time, as her response to my Review piece proudly proclaims, she was well aware of my criticisms and brushed them aside with disdain. Law students will now be treated to another round of Elvis sightings parading as scholarship. As I said in my article, my complaint with feminist research is not that authors make mistakes but that the mistakes are impervious to reasoned criticism. They do not get corrected, and the critic's motives are impugned. Nancy Lemon's response to my article illustrates the problem perfectly.
via @MarkWBennett
I was reading this incredible interview by a journalist documenting all the rape charges agaisnt R.Kelly.
R.Kelly likes 13-15 year old girls, and sits in his Bentley, outside his old highschool and picks up girls. He is known in the community of South Side Chicago for doing nothing but picking up girls. There are 24 documented cases in Chicago, by the police, with physical evidence. He even likes putting his escapades in pictures and putting them out on the street.
The way the journalist outlined it, these are not fully consensual encounters. Some involve orgies with13 year old girls. The parents get paid off and that's that.
But what struck me was the reason R.Kelly never has gotten convicted is because he doesn't like white girls. He has never targeted a white middle class underage girl. He only likes black girls. And even though he married a 15 year old while producing a song called "Age is Nothing but a Number" the world gave zero shits. Including the black community because women are just "out to get his money".
And then I thought about most feminists are middle class sheltered, educated, infantilized white women. And it really irritated me.
If you are male be prepared for society to have zero fucks if you are a target of sexual abuse. The same applies to black women.
But god forbid an educated woman gets hit on at work.
Ppen at December 19, 2013 11:05 PM
My son is at WSU majoring in Electrical Engineering. There are almost no women in his classes, despite endless outreach. On the first day of his Differential Equations class this last semester, the professor was explaining department policies.
Among them, free tutoring is available to women and minorities.
According to my son, the professor scanned the class, consisting solely of white and Asian men then said rather archly "I guess that announcement was a waste of time."
BTW, here is a list of things women either will not, or cannot, do.
Jeff Guinn at December 20, 2013 12:03 AM
most feminists are middle class sheltered, educated, infantilized white women.
Exactly, PPen.
Amy Alkon at December 20, 2013 5:26 AM
You forgot bitter
lujlp at December 20, 2013 6:16 AM
"But what struck me was the reason R.Kelly never has gotten convicted is because he doesn't like white girls. "
This correlates with how the news media decides which missing-persons reports are newsworthy: is the missing person a cute young white woman? If not, don't bother.
"My son is at WSU majoring in Electrical Engineering. There are almost no women in his classes, despite endless outreach."
Funny thing about that. It is my contention that the number of women in computer science, as a percentage of the whole, was higher in the early 1980s than it is now. I say this based on the class makeup of C.S. classes that I look into on my occasional jaunts through the local tech university. When I was an undergrad, the classes were about one-third women; now I rarely see more than one or two in a class of 25. Back in the early '80s, "third wave" had not taken over feminism to the extent that it has now.
Cousin Dave at December 20, 2013 6:34 AM
BTW, here is a list of things women either will not, or cannot, do.
I already said this on the toy thread, but one should be deliberate when distinguishing between statistical populations and individual cases. I was a EE undergrad, graduating with high honors. I now am an astrophysicist building instruments for telescopes on the ground and in space. Not a typical woman, I will grant you, but the number of women participating in hardware development in astronomy has increased dramatically in the 15 years I've been in the field. I agree that engineering will probably never come close to parity in the sexes. Anecdotally, the women in my major were either a) Asian and/or b) daughters of engineers.
As an aside, I like the inclusion of barber on that list. I am guessing the women at my salon who cut men's hair aren't included.
Astra at December 20, 2013 6:50 AM
Regarding the actual topic of the thread, we have an interesting story developing at CU, where a female sociology professor is running into the forces of sexual harassment enforcement on campus:
Patti Adler
My hope is that once a feminist women faces this crap, people will be forced to confront the lack of due process on campus and the CYA orientation of administrators. But then, I am an eternal optimist.
Astra at December 20, 2013 6:54 AM
Funny thing about that. It is my contention that the number of women in computer science, as a percentage of the whole, was higher in the early 1980s than it is now. I say this based on the class makeup of C.S. classes that I look into on my occasional jaunts through the local tech university. When I was an undergrad, the classes were about one-third women; now I rarely see more than one or two in a class of 25. Back in the early '80s, "third wave" had not taken over feminism to the extent that it has now.
Posted by: Cousin Dave at December 20, 2013 6:34 AM
I suspect it is simple economics. The structure of the loan and grant, and scholarship programs have driven women who are marginal in math and science skills into majors where they are guaranteed success, because their grade average, and future funding depend on it.
When my husband was a West Point, they had a saying "D's get degrees". Because at West Point, where competition to get in was fierce, and academic competition was brutal, grading on a curve was standard, a D kept you in the game.
When I was in college, it was structured so you could retake a class as many times as you wanted, and replace a bad grade. You could also take up to 21 hours a semester for the same price as 12 hours.
The university also didn't change the degree requirements and the prerequisites every damn year, as they do now.
In their greed to increase revenue, my alma mater has eliminated these options, and now retaking a class is brutally expensive, and inconvenient. You cant afford to drop courses, and you cant afford to retake them. They punish the risk taking most people need to major in engineering or the hard sciences. Is it any wonder, women who are more risk adverse than men, have almost disappeared from these classes?
Isab at December 20, 2013 7:32 AM
Lemon's arguments over the origins of the phrase "rule of thumb" are self-serving and exhibit tunnel vision. She only sees the phrase in reference to the width of a stick that can be used to beat one's wife because that's what she needs it to mean.
Too many feminists assert existing phrases are examples of the patriarchal nature of Western society and, thus, demeaning to women.
I once attended a diversity training session in which the instructor suggested avoiding the phrase "the whole nine yards" since it was was a reference to [American] football and sports and thus masculine. She did not appreciate it when I pointed out to her that 9 yards in football is meaningless and that the phrase does not reference football or any other sport.
To her, the phrase was an example of the patriarchy's inherent and odious bias against women and I was obviously a part of the patriarchy for refusing to accept her fact.
I later researched the phrase and its true origins remain a mystery.
The phrase "rule of thumb" exists in many languages, so it most likely is not limited to a Western European origin.
"Rule of thumb" was first cited in a 1685 book and referred to construction methods, not wife beating.
The length of the thumb is believed to be the precursor to the inch (as the foot is to feet and the nose-to-the-thumb-of-an-outstretched-arm is to yards). It was likely used as a measurement in other ancient cultures as well.
And the only context in which I've heard the restriction on rod width for beating one's wife is in Islam - as a rule propagated by Mohammed - not as part of a code of laws propagated by King Romulus of Rome.
I've read Plutarch's Parallel Lives and his commitment to historical accuracy is fluid.
Conan the Grammarian at December 20, 2013 11:39 AM
If you want a fulltime income online, head to my site and I will show you
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Bob at December 20, 2013 12:03 PM
I thought "9 yards" was the length of belt of machine gun bullets on US warplanes in WWII...
E.g.— 'Is Jerry giving you a hard time from that Messerschmidt over there? Let's give 'im the whole nine yards...!'
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2013 12:47 PM
Ppen I partially disagree, they will give a quarter fuck about those black kids and about women in other countries. They will pay them lip service and use their stories to claim that all women are treated that way.
Joe J at December 20, 2013 1:01 PM
First off I think bob is spamming
Second, I think the whole nine yards refers to using the whole of a bolt of cloth to make a garment and dates back to the Pheonians
lujlp at December 20, 2013 1:09 PM
Crid, that was one possible explanation, but the phrase doesn't show up in books until 1967 (Elaine Shepard - The Doom Pussy) - even books written by or about World War II fighter pilots. That and the phrase pre-dates World War II.
It was used in a 1907 article in a southern Indiana newspaper and may be variation of a phrase popular in Kentucky at the time, "the whole six yards."
It was still not in common use by 1961, the year Ralph Boston set a world record for the long jump that year at 27 feet (9 yards). No news report has been found that used the term (it would have been used at least once as a pun).
luj, I have seen the bolt of cloth explanation, but have forgotten why it has been rejected as the origin.
Conan the Grammarian at December 20, 2013 1:51 PM
Salon magazine had an Oct. 21, 2012 article by Sue Russell about why law enforcement can't admit their mistakes. Here's an excerpt:
“It’s always easier to recognize the mistakes of others,” cognitive neuroscientist Itiel Dror says of these often mystifying denials. “The problem we face,” says social psychologist Carol Tavris, “is not from bad people covering up their mistakes and not wanting to face the truth. It’s from good people who deny the evidence in order to preserve their belief that they’re good people.”
I think it's not just cops and feminists, it's the prosecution mindset in general.
Canvasback at December 20, 2013 2:50 PM
> the phrase doesn't show up in books until 1967
True dat.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at December 20, 2013 3:53 PM
True dat. -- Crid [CridComment at gmail] at December 20, 2013 3:53 PM
Don't be so sure of that.
====================================
Regardless -- we need to break the education system away from the government no matter how it's done. That is every level from K to Doctorate levels.
Jim P. at December 20, 2013 5:20 PM
Rule of Thumb - best explanation I've seen to date.
Hollywood.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at December 21, 2013 12:05 AM
"What if it was just one guy with six guns?"
lujlp at December 21, 2013 5:57 AM
"What if it was just one guy with six guns?"
Give him the finger!
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at December 21, 2013 6:17 PM
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